Singapore may have to ‘learn to live’ with Covid-19, minister says in call to boost vaccinations

Singapore’s leaders on Tuesday ramped up their calls for residents to be vaccinated, cautioning them that with the emergence of new coronavirus strains, Covid-19 may become endemic and the country would have to end up living with it.

Authorities also stressed that unlike countries such as China and Australia that had the luxury to adopt tighter border restrictions, Singapore – a small and open economy – could not shut itself off forever.

“We are a little red dot, fully plugged into the world, and trade and travel are our lifeblood. For us, these are not just good-to-have. They are existential issues,” said education minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the government’s Covid-19 task force.

The latest push by the government comes amid a sharp rise in domestic cases over the past few weeks, with 11 new active clusters after months of near zero infections. It has also detected several variants of concern in both local and imported infections, including the B. 1.617 strain first identified in India that is thought to be more transmissible.